Book IV: Chapter 2
Epigraph We burn like over-fat candles, our centres gouged, our edges curling in, our wick forever outrunning our wax. We resemble what we are: Men who never sleep. —Anonymous Mandate Schoolman, The Heiromantic Primer Synopsis Hûnoreal Early Spring, 19 New Imperial Year (4132 Year-of-the-Tusk), Southwestern Galeoth Drusas Achamian Although Drusas Achamian has renounced his School, he still suffers the same nightmares of the First Apocalypse that plague all Mandate Schoolmen. At a great feast, Seswatha watches as Anasûrimbor Celmomas II, High-King and his best friend, drinks himself into unconsciousness. He then leaves and finds his way to the High-King’s chambers where Suriala, the High-King’s wife, awaits him. The two make love. Achamian wakes up gasping. He has been a Wizard for nearly twenty years, and he has slept and studied the Seswatha’s Dreams in his room for nearly as long. He walks to his worktable and braces himself for the recital to come. Drusas Achamian He tries to write down a detailed account of the Dream, but all he ends up with is “NAU-CAYÛTI?” Celmomas’ famed son, whose heroic exploits against the No-God and his Consult are recited on hundreds of tomes in the libraries of the Mandate. Achamian has noticed that the frequency of the Dreams involving Nau-Cayûti was far out of proportion to his short-lived role in the Apocalypse. He wonders if Nau-Cayûti was in truth Seswatha’s son. He tries to date the Dream but he’s interrupted by his slaves again. Outside, a woman approaches his tower on a mule. She speaks Sheyic, the common tongue of the New Empire. It’s been five or six years since he’s had visitors. “Visitors meant grief,” Achamian thinks. Drusas Achamian The woman is Esmenet’s first daughter, Mimara. Achamian wonders if she was the reason why Esmenet had chosen Kellhus over him. Mimara says that she came to him because she wanted to know if he’s her father. He tells her that he met her mother after she had sold her into slavery, and that the daughters of whores have no fathers. She’s about thirty years of age, he thinks. Her mother must have recovered her years ago, for her manner is too studied and graceful. Achamian bids her go home, back to her mother. They have no connection, he says. She informs him that she is one of the Few, and that she did not really come to find her father, but her teacher. She wants to learn the Gnosis. Mimara Mimara thinks that Achamian possesses the “soul of a teacher,” just as her mother—the old whore—had told her. She left the Andiamine Heights about three months ago, travelling alone. The place was just as she expected it, except for one thing, the Wizard. She is surprised to see that Achamian is a “wild-haired hermit with limbs like barked branches and eyes that perpetually sort grievances. Bitter. Severe.” She sees the Mark on him. How could anyone sing songs about such a man? She wonders. She tells him about the Swayal Compact, the only School for Witches in the Three Seas, and how her mother would not allow her to join it. Achamian tells her to go home again. He would sooner be her father than her teacher. Mimara At night, Mimara builds a bonfire and waits outside the old Wizard’s window. “Teach me!” She screams. At first there is no answer, but then the Wizard comes out to confront her. They stare at each other for a moment before he hits her with his staff and enters the tower again. She falls down and begins to laugh, and once again she screams “Teeeach meeeee!” Characters Point of View * Drusas Achamian * Mimara Appearing * Drusas Achamian * Anasûrimbor Celmomas II * Seswatha * Suriala * Silhanna * Yorsi * Tisthanna * Mimara Mentioned * Anasûrimbor Nau-Cayûti * No-God * Tanhafut * Iëva * Idrusus Geraus * Esmenet Category:Chapters/The Judging Eye